Each winter, the public submits suggestions for next year’s One Read book. In January, a panel of community members reviews the suggestions, narrowing that list down to 10 titles, and then chooses two or three books to present for a public vote.

“Because — she is WINNER OF THE NOBEL PEACE PRIZE. [“The Last Girl: My Story of Captivity and My Struggle Against the Islamic State“] is a memoir of survival by a 21-year-old Yazidi woman of when she was captured by the Islamic State to be a sex slave. However, there is not a lot of graphic material in the book in a sexual context, so it would not be inappropriate, I don’t think. She was living in a small village of farmers and shepherds in northern Iraq. Yazidis are a unique religious tradition, not accepted by the Islamic State. Nadia had dreams of becoming a history teacher or opening her own beauty salon. In 2014, Islamic State militants massacred the people of her village, executing men who refused to convert to Islam and women too old to become sex slaves. Her mother and six of her brothers were killed and buried in a mass grave. Nadia was taken with thousands of other Yazidi girls and traded from one owner to another. She eventually escaped with the aid of her brothers in an underground movement. She is now a spokesperson for human rights of women.”

This is the last installment of the suggested One Read titles. The reading panel will soon be put to work contemplating all the titles that were suggested in November. You can click here to find the other titles that have been highlighted this month. You can also find previous One Read titles here.

“My Sister, the Serial Killer” by Oyinkan Braithwaite, satire meets slasher in this short, darkly funny hand grenade of a novel about a Nigerian woman whose younger sister has a very inconvenient habit of killing her boyfriends. The nominator of this book said, “[i]t touches on a lot of contemporary topics (violence against women, #MeToo) in a fun and un-heavy way, and it’s a page turner.”

The One Read reading panel will be sorting through the many titles that were suggested by our community for the 2020 One Read in a few short weeks. Meanwhile, we are continuing to highlight suggested titles so that you can see what others are reading.

Next up is a nonfiction suggestion, “Maybe You Should Talk to Someone: A Therapist, Her Therapist, and Our Lives Revealed” by Lori Gottlieb. With startling wisdom and humor, Lori Gottlieb invites us into her world as both clinician and patient, examining the truths and fictions we tell ourselves and others as we teeter on the tightrope between love and desire, meaning and morality, guilt and redemption, terror and courage, hope and change. The nominator had this to say: “I think that it would give the community a lot of ways to address not just depression, but change in general.”

We have just a few more nominated titles to share with you before the year ends. In the meantime, we are highlighting just some of the suggested titles so you can see what others are enjoying.

Today’s suggested title is “Circe” by Madeline Miller which is the story of the daughter of Helios. She is adept at witchcraft. She is banished to an island by Zeus and turns to the mortal Odysseus for companionship. The nominator of this book said, “It relates to classic myths that underpin a lot of our culture and is also a look at a woman’s life, how power is wielded privately & publicly, and how people find their true selves. Plus the writing is amazing.” We agree, Madeline Miller’s writing is amazing.